Name's Jason Thibeault. I'm an IT guy, skeptic, feminist, gamer and atheist, and love OSS, science of all stripes (especially space-related stuff), and debating on-line and off. I enjoy a good bit of whargarbl now and again, and will occasionally even seek it out. I am also apparently responsible for the death of common sense on the internet. My bad.

There are two more memes floating around involving photos, but I’m not sure I like either of them. One is Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street, and the other is The Cute Shirtless Dudes of Occupy Wall Street

Are you not sure & if so why?
Or are you employing a figure of speech & you mean that you don’t like them?

Earl: I strongly disagree. The problem is not the title, the problem is not the eloquence of the people involved. The problem is the objectification of these people — turning what should be a mere matter of self-expression into a Hot Or Not contest.

And while the two links are not equal in that the guys being objectified probably couldn’t care less that they’re on the ‘tubes as lust objects, what with being enculturated not to care by the same patriarchy that suggests that objectification is okay, they are both examples of a culture that is generally in favour of objectification.

By the by, someone is yelling at me via email, calling me not a feminist, because of other people’s comments on this post. Luckily I have a policy that states clearly that private contacts may be published if they’re hateful or ridiculous. If this emailer doesn’t cut it out, their case will be aired in public where they’re refusing to do it themselves.

I didn’t view the second link, primarily because my internet connection (normally pretty good) has been crappy lately; I suspect the modem is going bad and will replace it today.

In any event, I think we will simply agree to disagree. “Contest” is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose. I just didn’t see it that way. And I suppose there will be lots of rabid voices calling me misogynistic, anti-feminist, etc., yadda.

This Feministe article HERE posted by Jill & entitled “Steven Greenstreet proves he’s definitely not a misogynist by making rape jokes” has only just appeared in my Google Reader although it’s a week old. It’s about the man behind the Hot Chicks of OWS tumblr & video. I’ve yet to read it & the stream of comments.

That was my mistake and I apologize, and not because you threatened to publish my fake email, with my ersatz name Jason,(though only on the blog and not in the emails you wrote me) but I was confused because the first 3 emails were from you.

You still are no feminist. The title immediately defines women by their looks, relegating them to the sex class, the not fully human class, and as I wrote you to begin with one cannot have
equal exploitation opportunity in a patriarchy.
You really need to read the Feminism 101 blog, and that’s not the big put down you might be taking it as.
I see you went from “not sure you like it” to objectification needs to change” after my original email, so I may have been “yelling” at you, but you shifted your position a bit.
Naturally without anything but the public threat to publish my email and no a peep about the possibility that my email might
have gotten you to re-consider.

No, my position has not changed. Your view of my position has changed, because now you have a better idea what that position is, and it was not what you first thought it to be. You might notice that the rest of the comments explain exactly what the problem was with “not sure I like this” — that Canadians like to understate things. Not that I’ve since changed my mind, just that I was insufficiently venomous for your tastes.

And I thank you for pointing me to a site that I have read and referred to on a number of occasions in the past, though it has not altered my position one whit.

Deal with your crises. I have better things to do than to stand here being called “not a feminist” because I happen to have a penis. Protip: go visit Manboobz and tell them they’re not feminists either.

In my experience, most men don’t understand objectification because they picture getting hit on by girls as a good thing. The problem is that their concept of “girls” is “the girls that are posing in Maxim/FHM”.

If you want a man to truly understand objectification, take him to underwear night at a gay bar, leave him alone for an hour and then explain to him that being eye-fucked, cat-called and groped by people in whom you haven’t the slightest interest (and probably find disgusting) is what women deal with every day of the year.

And god forbid you do want attention from one (or a couple) people! Then you have to deal with everybody else assuming that you want attention from them as well. The moment you show cleavage, you must be asking for all sorts of sexual advances from whomever is interested.

(This isn’t to insinuate that Jason doesn’t understand objectification, but that the “Cute Shirtless Dudes of OWS” probably don’t mind because they probably don’t have the first clue.)